Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny: Greyscale World
by Sgt. NoOb
Summary: As the Second Bloody Valentine War rages across all fronts, OMNI begins to fracture from within, over the ideals of its member nations; only the threat of an enemy keeps them working together. As the foundation of the unified Earthfront crumbles, four of its veterans must decide on which side to take; and it may not always be the winning side they should be on...
1. Chapter 1

**CE 71 September 26****th****, 3 000 kilometres out from Jachin Due, PLANTs, Lagrange 5 **

Ray Feric, Lieutenant of the OMNI Space Corps, put his Strike Dagger into a spin, and tapped the trigger control rapidly; his mobile suit squeezed off shots from its beam rifle as fast as the systems allowed it to. The ammo meter on his HUD beeped a warning tone to warn him that its particle tank was running low; it was an amazing occurrence for a beam weapon to run dry before the mobile suit's own powerpack, and were it any other occasion Ray would have been amazed, but an empty gun was the least of his current concerns; the GuAIZ currently heading towards him had just shot down his wingmate, and if he wanted to survive the encounter, he would need to force the ZAFT MS back until reinforcements arrived.

Almost lazily, the GuAIZ zigzagged its flight path, dodging Ray's barely-aimed shots. It reciprocated with its own beam rifle, and Ray just managed to bring up the Strike Dagger's shield in time; there was no time to dodge, not at the decreasing range in which they were fighting in, and the Strike Dagger was simply not reactive enough, nor manoeuvrable enough, to effect the radical directional changes at that range. The beam hit the shield with all the force of an Anti-Ship Sword in full swing, burning through the last of the shield's anti-beam coating, and melting through to its innermost layer; thankfully, that shot had expended all of its energy on penetration, and the Strike Dagger's left arm was still functional, if slightly overheated. Discarding the wrecked shield, Ray muttered something unrepeatable, and his Strike Dagger tossed his rifle to its left arm, before drawing its beam saber with its right; a brilliant flash of energy illuminated the mobile suit's side, the light-pink beam blade flashing to life almost instantly.

The GuAIZ suddenly paused mid-manoeuvre, and fired its beam-tipped rocket anchors. Having seen GuAIZ units in action multiple times since his reassignment into space, Ray discarded the thought of trying to slip past the attack; he put his Strike Dagger into a full boost, sending the MS rocketing "up", at least, "up" when seen from his former position.

The GuAIZ easily went from a linear to a vertical full boost as well; it caught up, and backhanded the Strike Dagger with its beam claws. Ray barely caught its blow with his Strike Dagger's beam saber, and was forced backwards as the ZAFT unit followed up with a never-ceasing rain of stabbing strikes.

Ray winced as he parried blow after blow with his beam sabre, filling the cockpit displays with various mixes of sparks and lights as he manoeuvred his Strike Dagger as precisely as he could manage, trying to backtrack in an erratic a manner as possible to avoid being caught by the rain of blows. As much as he was an OMNI pilot, he had to admit that the GuAIZ was a wondrous piece of work; many of his compatriots' own observations, and the pictures of the GuAIZ's head unit, suggested that it was related to the Earth Alliance's GAT-105X Strike in some way. Having watched instructional videos of the Strike in action, and having dealt with GuAIZ units many times since the days through Boaz leading up until now, it felt as though he was fighting something copied from the Strike.

The cessation of the sparks and energy arcs from two beam melee weapons clashing brought Ray's mind back to clarity. He gave a sigh of relief as his former instructor and now comrade, Captain Kelburn Tarkon, arrived on the scene along with another pilot, blasting away at the GuAIZ; Ray backed his unit away and joined in the barrage as well, not caring that he was exhausting the last of his rifle's energy store. The ZAFT unit backed away and returned fire, but the shots were wide, as it was forced to split its attention between the three Strike Daggers, which were putting their all into evasive manoeuvres.

Kelburn opened a direct line to Ray's unit. "Any injuries?" the voice of the older man came through.

"I'm fine, thanks to you catching my distress call." Ray replied, watching the GuAIZ speed off. He turned to face Kelburn, grimly noting the fact that he had but one member of his squadron left from a full complement of twelve machines. "What happened to your squad?"

"GuAIZ squadron. They were hiding in the wreck of an _Agamemnon_-class. We would have all lost all of our heads if it wasn't for Mad Dog Morgan passing by. What about yours?"

"Same old story as yours," Ray said, his mind thinking back to his deployment in the scattered skirmishes that had led to Boaz, and now, Jachin Due. He'd seen "Mad Dog under the Moonlight" Morgan Chevalier fight on numerous occasions, and each time, the older man and his 105 Dagger + Gunbarrel Striker was the one who'd cleared a path for Ray and his fellow pilots, allowing them to push on. He had seen the older pilot blast through GuAIZ and CGUE units like a beam shot through paper.

"Where did Captain Chevalier go?" Ray removed his helmet, and afforded himself the luxury of wiping the sweat off his brow, before jamming the uncomfortable thing back on. While the pilot suit allowed extreme flexibility compared to older space suits, with no loss of vacuum performance, Ray wished that they had put a proper defogger in the helmet systems, like several civilian models had.

"No idea. I last saw him leading an attack on Jachin Due itself. I saw Ed the Ripper there as well; that makes two superstars." Kelburn's Strike Dagger turned towards the resupply fleet. "C'mon, we've got other things to worry about. My rifle is almost empty, and if I've to deal with a GuAIZ in close quarters, the heart attack will kill me first."

**CE 71 September 26****th****, 3 500 kilometres out from Jachin Due, PLANTs, Lagrange 5, on board OMNI supply vessel **_**Safe Behind**_

Ray unclipped his pilot suit's neck guard, took off his helmet, and relaxed his body. Back with the resupply fleet, and inside the hangar of the _Marseille III_-class _Safe Behind_, technicians began to work on his Strike Dagger, checking for more pressing cases of joint damage, recharging the mobile suit, and refuelling its rifle's energy tank, thrust propellant, and solid ammunition stores all at the same time. To his left, Kelburn's Dagger was docked, and likewise, was being worked on by no less than two dozen technicians and mechanics. Ray had been temporarily placed under Kelburn's command; it was better to form an undersized flight than go back out there alone.

Ray closed his eyes for a moment, remembering his lost teammates, and was about to begin checking through the Strike Dagger's automatic report of its computer systems when he heard knocking on the cockpit doors; opening it, he saw a familiar smile. Master Sergeant Lin Tennan-Khole, an OMNI Space Corps chief technician, and Lieutenant Ray Feric, an OMNI Armor Tactics Corps pilot, had shared a close relationship forged throughout the latter half of the Bloody Valentine War, one strengthened by their current posting to the same fighting force.

"Thirsty?" The former OMNI research-and-development assistant scientist spun a sealed bottle through the air. Lin had worked on beam weaponry for OMNI prior to her assignment to the front, and mobile suit systems were no stranger to her as well. Both of them had shared a fascination of the weapons system that had been made infamous through ZAFT's military campaign, and now, they were on the same front, on board the same ship.

"Thanks," Ray said, catching the blue container. He pulled the straw out of its compartment and began to drink in small amounts. "How many came in without going back out so far?" Ray asked, referring to pilots too wounded or with units too disabled to return to battle.

Lin shook her head. "Those that make it back in are those that manage to get here on their own power. The battles out there… it's like hell."

Ray closed his eyes for an instant, remembering the fights he went through since the battle for Jachin Due started. From his first action at Panama, where he narrowly escaped with his life, to Boaz and now Jachin Due, he'd seen allied and enemy units shoot disabled MSes in the cockpit just to make sure. He thought about Lin's words, and shivered slightly.

"I heard that the task force had deployed nuclear weapons," Lin said. "I still can't believe..."

Ray nodded once to affirm the thought. "I saw them. They were intercepted; I saw the detonations." He looked around. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but... if those missiles had hit, we wouldn't have to die out here by the dozens."

Lin's face was troubled. "Ray, it's not like you to say something like this."

Ray's brow furrowed in mild frustration. "I know. At least the civilians in the PLANTs are safe. But the way this battle is going, the only way to bring ZAFT to heel is to enter the PLANTs and face them in direct combat." He sealed his drink bottle; OMNI's adaptation training for non-space pilots had been a hasty affair, and he didn't relish the feeling of having to go in his suit later on. In his heart, he was still a ground-pounder. "The death count is still going to soar to its maximum possible number. The only question is how long it'll take to achieve it."

The corners of Lin's mouth turned up in a small smile. "You think too much about everything all the time. Just stay safe and come back to me, alright?" she said, planting a light kiss on Ray's forehead. "Hm. Salty."

The _Safe Behind _suddenly rumbled, and Ray's smirking reply was lost in his resurgent anxieties. Lin likewise looked around with a worried face; a supply ship at the very back of the line had very few reasons to dump power into its engines for an emergency activation. That usually meant that it needed to escape… and quickly.

"What's wrong?" Ray asked, resealing his pilot suit. From the corner of his vision, he saw Kelburn's Strike Dagger grab its rearmed beam rifle from the recharging rack, technicians working furiously to remove the mobile suit's remaining restrains.

Lin put a hand to her helmet, activating its comm function. As she listened, her looks got more worried. "A long-range weapons blast. It seems like ZAFT just revealed their trump card." She pushed away from Ray's Strike Dagger, sealed her helmet, and started to direct orders, even as Ray sealed his cockpit, and hurriedly brought all its systems online. "Enact vacuum protocols. We're sending these two out as fast as possible, in case there's an ambush from ZAFT units in the vicinity."

And then the space around the _Safe Behind_ became unbearably bright.

Ray, being the closest to the hangar door, reacted on instinct, blasting out as soon as the entire area around him lighted up in unnatural whiteness, before the Strike Dagger's external cameras filled with static from the visual overload. It took a few seconds for Ray to remember that the ship was behind him… that Lin was on that ship.

Ray cursed and tugged at the controls, and the Strike Dagger sluggishly responded; it was as though it had lost most of its thrusters. Ray wondered if he has scraped something on his way out.

As his screen functions returned, albeit filled with heavy static, Ray could see that the space behind him was filled with a multitude of colours, but the _Safe Behind_ was nowhere to be seen. In fact, as Ray looked around, the space around him was filled with an unusual number of explosions; the light he had seen earlier was fading… and not a single intact OMNI warship could be found.

He then realized the full magnitude of what had just happened. Taken with fear, Ray slowly opened the cockpit hatch and clambered out, taking care not to overextend himself into the void beyond. The light had dissipated, but he could see the direction it came from, even as the residual energy from the beam petered out.

Jachin Due had gained a new satellite… One that Ray could have sworn had not been present just minutes ago. The vaguely dish-shaped object was flickering with arcs of energy, and on its front was a conical construct; it was charred and twisted, as though it had been channelling the focus of the terrifying blast from a few seconds ago.

Ray choked back a cry as he saw Kelburn's Strike Dagger float past, a battered head attached to a barely-existing torso, the stumps of its arms still attached to its shoulders. The blast had melted everything below the mobile suit's chest block, including the cockpit in its entirety, and the Strike Dagger, still spinning from the force of the blast, turned to face Ray. Ray saw his figure reflected in the mobile suit's faceplate, and a small part of him gave thanks that his helmet visor had automatically polarised when he had emerged from his mobile suit. He didn't want to see what kind of face he had now.

Ray looked down, and saw that his Strike Dagger wasn't in any better condition. Its legs were completely gone, even from just a glancing hit, and the backwash from the blast had damaged most of his thrusters to some extent.

Then something smaller bumped into him; it was wearing a white technician's space suit. He caught the body, and took a slow look around, finally noticing the finer details of the carnage. Those that had been standing near the hangar door of the _Safe Behind_ were thrown clear of the ship as it lost half of its mass to the blast, and the other half to chain explosions… but with all the debris flying around, not a single one of them had made it alive.

The lucky ones were speared with shrapnel, killing them painfully but relatively quickly; other died from compromised spacesuits that they couldn't patch in time or were too injured to do so. Ray slowly turned the body in his hands around. Lin's visage greeted him.

Her lips were blue, and water vapour had frosted on her face and the sides of her helmet visor. Her eyes were half open, and her face expressionless. To Ray, she looked as though she had gone to sleep, but in an extremely cold room… except for the deep, ugly crack running down her visor, and the foot-long metal piece cutting into her side. Her spacesuit was decorated with numerous smaller fragments, some of them threatening to cut into Ray's own pilot suit as he pulled her corpse in, and embraced it with what little strength he had. There was no sadness, no anger; only a numb sensation thrummed on the forefront of his consciousness, eclipsing all other emotions.

As the battle of Jachin Due raged on, Ray brought the body into his cockpit, sealed the leaks, and set the Strike Dagger's distress signal on full broadcast. And he let himself drift off into blissful darkness, his subconscious haunted by one-eyed demons, and an all-consuming flash of light, echoed with Lin's voice framed in a scream he never got the chance to hear.

**CE 73, November 3****rd****, OMNI Enforcer AFRICOM, Egypt, Sinai Base**

**07 29, one month after the Break The World Incident **

The first thing Ray realized, when he woke, was that his pillowcase and bedsheets were utterly soaked. Anymore, and he would have soaked through to the floor.

He slowly moved his right hand to cover his eyes from the morning sun streaming in from the window, his left wiping sweat from his face. Dark drops patterned the bedsheets as his hand came away, covered with heavy droplets of moisture. The fan hanging from the white ceiling above him was present only in sound; for all the ventilation it provided, it might as well have not been there.

This particular OMNI base was located in South Sinai, Egypt, where the local populace had suffered relatively little from the Junius 7 drops. During his two-week stint into Africa's coastal regions on relief efforts, he had seen first-hand the destruction of the local infrastructure. His deployment there had been part of the adopted measures after OMNI had experienced an attack on a disaster site by insurgents, but thankfully Ray's mission had been uneventful. Even now, the daily news reports were still about the on-going recovery efforts, and there were entire towns and cities that had yet to have access to basic necessities, like electricity and fresh water, restored.

Nevertheless, life at the small-scale Sinai OMNI Army Base was anything but dull. The regions around and beyond Egypt were often locked in small insurgencies; no doubt the perpetrators had been taking inspiration from the former anti-ZAFT group Desert Dawn, though further up north, he had heard that newer groups fought OMNI forces for occupying their territory for a military base.

Although Desert Dawn had disbanded a while ago; Ray often caught the name on tapes published by the newer terrorist groups that they were "fighting against the racially-slanted Earth Alliance for the right to live independently, as Desert Dawn did the same to the unholy invaders from space", or something to that effect.

While Egypt was part of the African Community, it was located far from any of ZAFT's actual African presence itself. Nevertheless, Desert Dawn's reach had been far, and the area had been a hotbed of insurgency even back when in CE 72, OMNI, in an effort to secure the minerals in the regions surrounding Egypt, used the location to begin establishing a network of bases, sometime after the destruction of JOSH-A and the successful rout of ZAFT forces in Northern Africa. Unfortunately for the half-constructed first base, it came too late in the war, and soon the funds were redirected to a Blue Cosmos-led nuclear armament program. The single base struggled on, and was slowly built it up to its current, modest state today. The prospect of minerals had turned out modest, and Ray was sure that had the base been under Central command, it would have been shut down months ago. As it was, it was one of the better-stocked facilities of OMNI AFRICOM, and served as a key point in the safety of the southern areas of the Middle East and Suez regional areas.

It was also the truth that the present OMNI leadership did not care much for any base that wasn't dedicated to the anti-Coordinator movement that had heated up in the past half a year or so, and had actively re-directed anti-insurgent forces towards the frontlines in the Middle East after the Battle of Aprilius One, and the subsequent ZAFT occupation of the eastern regions of the Middle East.

Fortunately for the personnel on Sinai base, the authorities in Egypt needed OMNI mobile suits to keep the law and order, and so continued supporting them in any way they needed; not that the local forces were not capable of routing the insurgents, but they rightly figured that it would cost less for OMNI to sting the unruly mountain bandits occasionally, rather than having to deal with possible black-market GINNs and DINNs with nothing more than old Linear Tanks and squadrons comprised of the obsolete F-7D Spearhead VTOL jet. Unlike OMNI, the meagre Egyptian national security forces didn't have the numbers, nor the warfighting experience, to turn disadvantages into a workable victory plan.

Ray, shaking his head to clear off the last of his thoughts and sleepiness, got into exercise wear and exited his spartan room, noting that most people were already up. The only reason why no one wanted his head a half hour ago was because today was his off day.

_Not that you have anywhere else to go to_, a small voice at the back of his mind reminded him, as he walked onto the area surrounding the hangar bays.

Ray shook his head to clear the lingering images of Lin, and set off on a brisk run.

**CE 73, November 3****rd****, OMNI Enforcer AFRICOM, Egypt, Sinai Base**

**08 43 **

On his seventh round around the hangar complexes, Ray could no longer resist not peeking through one of the hangar doors, which was ajar. Deciding to stop for the day, Ray walked in, and was greeted with a front-row sight down the interior of the barrel of a Windam's M9409L beam rifle. Sounds of tools striking metallic surfaces ceased as a woman dressed in a sleeveless army shirt and short exercise shorts strode up towards him. "Morning, sir," she said, with both her face and her light-brown, shoulder-length, tousled hair stained with blobs of machine lubricant gel. "'Was about time you got around."

Second Lieutenant Sheryl Camelot had been assigned under the command of Ray Feric, following the month of June in CE 73, and the formal activation of Sinai Base's second Tactical Combined Squadron, the 108th TCS _Manhunters_. Ever since then, they had formed a close comradeship, both during missions, and when on-base; they had started rocky at first, but Ray found out that the otherwise-prudent Britishwoman had an endearing streak to those she was close enough with.

"At ease, Sheryl. I don't want to feel like I'm still on the base during an off day." Ray replied. Shelving his thoughts about her inappropriate attire for garage work for later, he walked around the rifle, and gave a low whistle. "A Windam's weapon? I wasn't aware we had any arms delivery in the past month."

"The Lieutenant Colonel approached me last week," Sheryl replied, her eyes almost sparkling, and the twitching of her face a telltale sign of a suppressed grin. "He said that he had a favour owed him, and asked for this in return, and that he couldn't think of anyone more suited for this. This came in on truck just five days ago, but I was too busy recalibrating the automatic compensation on my unit to make the necessary adjustments to this little baby here. It's a good replacement for that old 94mm beam rifle I used to have... without the parts, I can't keep it firing steadily any longer."

"A good choice," Ray said as he ran a hand over the rifle's matte black finish. "It's a misnomer calling these beam rifles; if I recall the initial press-released specs correctly, these guns could tango with a GINN Recon's sniper rifle if properly tuned. The rate-of-fire is also pretty high for a weapon of that power rating; these aren't sniper weapons… more like designated marksman rifles."

"Probably the only good thing to come out of the Windam," Sheryl sighed. "Those things have good specs, but the controls setup is so bad that using a GINN would be easier. And with the way OMNI is training new pilots, it's not really helping much."

"What about the Dagger L's beam carbine?" Ray asked. "This thing would be pretty maintenance-heavy in a desert environment…"

Sheryl shook her head. "I've tried every way of tweaking those rifles, but the desert heat, on a bad day, restricts their range by more than 60%. As bad as the Windam's overall performance may be, the beam rifle itself is pretty hardy, and its firepower makes the Dagger L's beam carbine look like a disco light. Combined with this third-party R-14K suppressor and range-booster… I'd wager that this weapon can take the eye out of a ZAKU at 2.5 kilometres _minimum_, even in full-blown desert heat."

Ray then noticed the black, four-meter long rectangular device, sitting on a pushcart a metre away from the rifle's barrel. It was almost entirely smooth on the surface with two bumps located symmetrically to each other, near what Ray assumed to be the connector to the barrel, and its outer diameter was almost twice that of the M9409L's barrel. "Shengyang Heavy Industries" was stamped on its side in white print, along with the accompanying Chinese letters and the model number of "R-14K".

"I'm surprised that Shengyang was allowed to manufacture this," Ray said. "Those at the top of the arms business and supplying directly to OMNI are usually quite stringent on what gets past regulations. Especially since this is a non-Western product."

"They weren't," Sheryl replied. The pilot had been tinkering with the rifle's internal components; something had been done, because when Sheryl stepped back and activated the output testing console, Ray noticed that the power readings were miles ahead of the Dagger L's beam carbine output, and almost 150% over the rifle's own manual-stated limits. Satisfied, she wiped her hands and strode over to the suppressor; activating the cart, she slowly moved it into position. Ray pitched in, and they finally got both components of the rifle aligned.

"These things aren't listed in Shengyang's production catalogue. The Republic of East Asia and the OMNI forces stationed within their territories have them… but that's about the only place where using one isn't a breach of some military law or another." Sheryl adjusted the cart, and the platform on which the suppressor rested began to rise and level out with the barrel. Sheryl began to prepare to attach both components together. "It wasn't even into its second week of production when Actaeon announced that they were restricting its distribution until they could certify its compatibility with the Windam. That was two months ago…" Sheryl trailed off.

Ray didn't say a thing, but he nodded silently in agreement. Things had initially been going good right after the end of the Bloody Valentine War, but by CE 73, the Atlantic Federation, and even some of the nations on Earth, had regressed into their pre-CE 71 state; increasingly blind hatred of Coordinators and sympathizers alike, fermented by people who redefined the insult of "Earth Elite".

Not that he couldn't see their point. With member nations demanding to leave the Earth Alliance one after another since the past year, and now with the Junius Seven drop responsible for millions dead and millions more homeless, to say nothing of footage of ZAFT-styled units shown to be responsible for the drop, Ray reasoned that the Earth Alliance had a right to feel more than just anger.

Sheryl's voice shook him out of his personal thoughts, as the automatic equipment attached the suppressor to the rifle's barrel. "So, what's the occurrence for today's morning run? It's not like you to wear such an expression on throughout the morning."

Ray put a hand to his face, a brief expression of worry flitting across his features. "Do I look that bad?"

Sheryl laughed. "You look shellshocked."

Ray thought back to the dream this morning. "I suppose," he said. He took a look at his watch. "Well, I shouldn't bother you with your fine-tuning. I look forward to seeing this in action."

Ray exited the hangar and made his way back to the barracks, exchanging greetings with Lieutenants Navana Landro and Aaqil bin Saud, fellow pilots on a more permanent station at Sinai Base. Unlike Ray, who had just transferred in half a year ago, those two had been on the same area for almost two years, fighting the insurgencies in Dagger units, and in much more recent times, hitting terrorist outposts in their new GAT-X339/Q Wild Daggers. The new units had come in not more than five days ago, along with Sheryl's rifle. The fact that the base commander could wrangle out such units for such a far-flung base was a testament to his connections; and with their abysmal manpower conditions in the fighting department, Ray was thankful for every advantage they had.

"Taking the hunting hounds out for a spin?" Ray asked Aaqil. He had fought against the Afghan multiple times in mock combat, and the man was as skilled in land warfare as they come. If there was terrorist movement spotted, Aaqil would always be the first to be dispatched, and while Ray was unsure of how the Wild Dagger came to be, he had to admit that it was a splendid piece of engineering for what was undoubtly less than half the cost of a variable-form unit. Brief bursts of good moments such as the Wild Dagger was what kept Ray going in his trust of OMNI.

"As always," Aaqil replied. The pilot suit buffed up Aaqil somewhat, but even then one could tell he had a lanky build. "You look dead. Something happened last night?"

"If relieving the nightmares of Jachin Due counts, then yes, something happened." Ray replied. The dreams had came every night after Ray's tour of duty was finished in CE 72, until they slowly disappeared… but as of recent days, Ray had been seeing the same dream on an almost weekly basis.

"You should use this off-day to go see a psychiatrist, sir," Navana said. The Sudanese, under Aaqil's command, and the only other member of the anti-insurgent squad, was well-built, unlike his wingman, and was taller than both Ray and Aaqil by a head. Ray often wondered if a Coordinator could actually stand up to someone like Navana, as least in physical competition, despite they being touted as superior to normal humans in every way.

"No thanks," Ray replied. "This way, I'll might be able to wrangle out one more rest day." The three laughed, and Ray excused himself.

The thundering of the Wild Daggers could be felt through the ground as Ray entered the barracks building, and made his way to his room to gather his bathing items. There were several of the buildings, but a full quarter of the total accommodation was empty, as the base was chronically understaffed. On the plus side, Ray had often contemplated trying out sleeping in a different bunk each night. The only thing that kept him back was the effort to actually make the dusty, unused bunks habitable again.

_At least this place has the proper accommodations like everywhere else_, Ray thought, as he entered the showers. He had read books about the days back then when the Earth Alliance was called the United Nations, and in where he was posted, the importance of water had been near unparalleled back then.

Apart from him, a few other men in the stationed tank battalion were also present, and nodded respectfully at him; he returned to gesture. As he entered his cubicle and undressed, Ray's thoughts drifted back to the dream. It irked him somewhat that the dreams were always the same; he had lost comrades in almost every battle he had fought in, but only the last battle was the one he had ever dreamt about.

Vicky and Thom at the Panama Spaceport, both of whom were childhood friends, killed by the hate-driven ZAFT forces, when the Gungnir System had fried the electrical systems of every Strike Dagger in the battle.

Kai, a fellow pilot who had escaped together with him from the slaughter at Panama, only to die at Orb alone, after he had volunteered to join the forces headed there.

Makita and Jason, greenhorns who had fought under his command at Boaz, and then Joey, Kai and Mana, at Jachin Due… and even people who were friends and not his squadmates, like Tracy, whom he met at Ptolemaeus and was part of the home guard when GENESIS hit, and Kelburn, his instructor, who returned to active duty when the Strike Dagger was mass-produced…

… and Lin.

Ray shook his head at that thought, sending water droplets flying everywhere in the small bath cubicle. He continued washing up, and just as he was done, the sound of a massive jet transport landing could be heard coming from the direction of the base runway.

Seconds later the intercom sounded out, with the announcer asking for "Ray Feric, Lieutenant" to report to the officer's lounge. Ray put on his uniform, somewhat surprised that someone would call him at this time, and left as quickly as possible.

**CE 73, November 3****rd****, North-East of El-Tor, OMNI Enforcer AFRICOM, Egypt, Sinai Base **

**Morning 11 30**

Lieutenant-Colonel Rahabinod Ravinan was a man in his late 50s, and had been in Sinai Base for almost 3 years straight. He was a former tank battalion commander, and had engaged ZAFT forces and the elites of ZAFT's famed Desert Tiger, Andrew Watfeld's forces, multiple times up until the Second Battle of Victoria. He was also all too willing to be vocal about his disdain for the Alliance's increasingly anti-Coordinator, and their "you're either with us or them" policies.

For his sense of justice, he was shuffled around for the remainder of the Bloody Valentine War, and was thrown all the way out here right after the Second Battle of Jachin Due. He did not mind the sidelining; in fact, he quite welcomed the pace; not too much action, not too little. He had stubbornly refused retirement promotions thrice since then, even when OMNI had begun to fortify Suez and its surroundings. If anything, OMNI paid for meals and lodging, at least, and his personal conviction was that if he retired, he would be akin to a loser.

The two people seated in front of him at this moment, however, had definitely not been sent here by OMNI CENTCOM at Iceland to chase him out. On his left was Kaguya Sakamoto, famous for being the only person crazy enough to dual-wield beam sabres with her Strike Dagger during the Third Battle of the Victoria Supercomplex, charging the lines with the weapons of her fallen comrades. He'd heard that Kaguya had put her Strike Dagger through so much strain during close-combat that she was given a new Strike Dagger after the battle, while they scrapped the first unit.

The other, Rahabinod recognized as a former tank company commander, Lieutenant Guy Leon. While he had never met the man directly, Rahabinod had checked the records; both of them had been combatant and commander in different units on the African Front, even through the Second Battle of Victoria, and they had both escaped the enemy's clutches by a narrow margin against ZAFT's famed Desert Tiger during the retreat to the OMNI rescue fleet offshore Kenya. After the Strike Dagger had entered mass-production, Guy had avoided participating in the EA's space battles altogether, instead engaging in the Third Battle of the Victoria Supercomplex, and later at Operation 8.8, the offensive to take and hold ZAFT's Carpentaria Base, and risking life and limb for his comrades during the offensive.

Ray entered Rahabinod's office, dressed in the typical uniform of officers. The two rose to salute, and Ray motioned for them to sit down.

"Sir," Ray saluted Rahabinod. "I was told that you require my presence urgently."

"Well, not urgently." Rahabinod replied. "But I was hoping to introduce you to these two newcomers to the base. They'll be under your command in the _Manhunter_ squadron, effective today."

Rahabinod gestured to Guy. "This is Lieutenant Guy Leon," Guy stood up and shook Ray's hand. "He was formerly from OMNI EURACOM's 39th Regiment, 147th Armor Tactics Battalion stationed at Moscow."

"Pleased to be working alongside you, sir," Guy said. "It would be good to hear of some tactics that a Jachin Due veteran would utilize."

"Likewise from an Eight-point-eighter," Ray said, using the slang for those who survived the hellish Operation 8.8. He'd heard the name before, the man who led his team without losses during the initial action, and who went on to fight in the desperate melee in Carpentaria Base itself, even against the feared "Butcher of Carpentaria". That he got most of his men out alive, despite the near-impossible odd of the battle at that time, was a testament to his combat sense.

"And this is 2nd Lieutenant Sakamoto Kaguya," Rahabinod said, as Kaguya stood up in turn.

"Pleased to meet you, sir." Kaguya said as she exchanged handshakes with Ray. "I've read your profile before coming here, if you'll excuse me. It would be perfect to improve my own skills under your command."

"I have to thank you for thinking so highly of me." Ray said. He, like Rahabinod, knew the female pilot from her deeds; her daring close-quarters rush during the Third Battle of the Victoria Supercomplex, in which the Earth Alliance managed to secure the Habilis Mass Driver, and then her fall from her Captain rank when she refused to use her squadron to attack a group of injured ZAFT soldiers during the Siege of Kaohsiung, even going as far as to challenge the OMNI forces attacking the handicapped ZAFT soldiers.

"And with that comes new orders," Rahabinod said. "Clean this area, and join up with OMNI forces at Gulnahan."

While Ray maintained a stoic face, inwardly he blanched. OMNI had established a base and a chokepoint at the Gulnahan Canyon, near the north-west area of the Iranian region; one protected by a Lohengrin Positron Laser Cannon. He had also heard about the extreme cruelty the OMNI forces there exacted on the locals, who had protested at them just waltzing in and grabbing men and material alike to construct their massive base; a stark contrast to the situation at the otherwise unremarkable Sinai Base.

Notwithstanding the fact that he was in no position to take action against those stationed there, he was sure that some people in OMNI just wanted more cannon fodder to toss in front of ZAFT, to test their capabilities prior to some great assault operation.

Nevertheless, orders were orders. Ray saluted, and Rahabinod passed him the documents. "Take your time," the Lieutenant Colonel said, getting up. "This is your off day, after all."

Ray nodded. Turning to the two others, he waited for Rahabinod to leave the room, and motioned for them to follow him out as well. "Well, there really isn't anything at Sinai Base. Thankfully; ZAFT seems to have overlooked the possibility of us intervening in combat as well."

"A dead-end base for rejects from the regional military", Kaguya said. "No offense meant, sir." She quickly added.

"None taken," Ray replied, still reading through the notes. He saw supply orders, the requisition forms of of two more Dagger L units… and places on where to hit to wipe out insurgent nests along the way.

Ray shook his head. "These rear-line OMNI bastards have no idea what they're doing."

"Wrong locations?" Guy guessed.

"That's the least of things," Ray replied. "Given the line of advance, they're hoping we'll be clearing out the hornets' nests along the way, and maybe run into forward ZAFT forces incoming from Mahamul. We're being strung up as a mobile early-warning team. When they lose regular radio contact with us while we're en route, they'll know where ZAFT has been."

Both Guy and Kaguya made disapproving looks, joining Ray in his his four years here, Rahabinod had worked carefully with local authorities to find out each and every hidey-hole in the vicinity of Egypt, and beyond to Iraq and Pakistan. For four years he had kept terror attacks to a minimum. Sinai Base, while being nothing more than an old OMNI outpost, was at least respected by the people whom it watched over.

From the orders, Ray could see that OMNI High Command didn't give much thought to the little things. He frowned, and focused his attention on the logo on the side of the paper; the emblem of OMNI Central Command was printed there, rather than the usual shape of OMNI African Command.

"I wonder why Central is sending us regional orders when it's supposed to be…"

Ray was so lost in thought that he didn't notice Sheryl rounding a corner, knocking the smaller woman back by a fair margin.

"Sorry," Ray quickly said. "Before I forget, these are our team's newest additions." Ray stepped back. "Lieutenant Guy Leon, and 2nd Lieutenant Sakamoto Kaguya. She's 2nd Lieutenant Sheryl Camelot."

Sheryl took their hands. "Welcome to the _Manhunters_. I assure you that despite our name, the team is generally nice, and places civilian protection above being racists and bigots."

Guy and Kaguya chuckled. "You must have heard about the Lohengrin Gate," Guy said.

Sheryl gave a wan smile. "I did," she said. "One of my relatives used to work there as an NGO doctor." She tried to smile, but ended up doing it halfway, and settled for a shrug instead. "Last I heard, he got chased out of the area by OMNI troops for trying to treat malnourished workers."

Ray took a deep breath. "Well, you're in luck," he said. "We've got orders to head there ASAP, so things start today."

Ray then turned to Guy and Kaguya. "My break's over. We'll need to start preparing today if we want to be ready to move out as soon as possible. I hope you're ready for combat."

"Ever ready." Guy replied. _I still don't know how skilled he really is… _Guy thought. _But at least, he knows what to do._

"Yes sir," Kaguya replied.

"Sir," Sheryl began. Ray held up a hand. There was still more information to disseminate before they could get to their tasks.

"Included in this report is the projected movement path of the _Minerva, _the state-of-the-art warship that ZAFT just recently commissioned. In a week's time it will reach ZAFT's Mahamul Base , and will likely proceed to engage in combat at the Lohengrin Gate. This report contains several orders, first of which is to deal with any insurgents located directly in-between Sinai Base and the Gate, and regardless if the first is completed or not, to assemble at the Gate in time for its defence, or, if we're lucky, we'll intercept them out on the field, after which is anyone's guess as to what would happen." Ray waved the report in the air carelessly. "Otherwise, we'll meet up with the Gate forces in a week's time, sacking any enemy camps we might encounter on the way. Does anyone have any suggestions or objections?"

This time even Sheryl seemed satisfied.

Ray turned to look over his new team. He was far from a full squadron of twelve, but four was a good start. "Good. _Manhunters_, let's roll."

_**Afterword:**_

_Well, it's been a while since I last updated this. I figured now was a good time as any to start on finishing this writing project, and so a new story has begun, beginning from some time shortly after the devastating drop of Junius 7. Unlike the episodic format of **Tales of the Cosmic Era**, **Greyscale World** is more focused on a core group of characters, and with it, I'll try to explore as many of the possibilities of the OMNI POV of the conflict as seen in SEED Destiny. Previous readers might find it fun; many of the people from **Tales of the Cosmic Era** also feature greatly in here.  
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	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**CE 73, November 4****th****, North-East of El-Tor, OMNI Enforcer AFRICOM, Egypt, Sinai Base **

**Morning 08 30**

Lieutenant-Colonel Rahabinod sneaked a look out of his office as the _Manhunters_ and Sinai Base's technicians bustled around their work. Aaqil and Navana weren't scheduled to return yet, so he contented himself to just watching his forces get taken away from him... again.

Rahabinod gave the mental equivalent of a shrug. It wasn't as though he needed them for a fabulous, world-splitting rebellion or anything.

Rahabinod turned to face the door as three knocks sounded out. "Come in," Rahabinod said, closing the curtain blinds, as Major Asanogawa Yoko, his second-in-command, entered.

Unlike Rahabinod, who preferred to command with some laxity, Major Yoko, from the Republic of East Asia's Far Northern Air Force, was utterly rulebook-bound, even for a veteran. Rahabinod often jokingly thought to himself that such a strict personality was wasted on being an OMNI officer; if she had been a Coordinator geneticist, she would have taken their gene manipulation techniques to new heights.

Yoko noticed Rahabinod's slight smile. "Is there something on my face, sir?"

Rahabinod returned to shuffling papers on his desk. "Nothing," he said. "Do you need me for something, Major?"

Yoko reached into the stack of papers she was carrying, and handed over a sheaf of them to Rahabinod. "More from OMNI, sir." she said, pushing her glasses up, her lips pressed into a thin line. "They denied the special ammunition resupply we asked for two months ago." She shifted slightly, the disapproving look on her face directed at the papers Rahabinod now held. "The two transport aircraft that landed yesterday, with our two new pilots, have finished delivering our monthly supplies… and is appropriating any materials we can spare for the Lohengrin Gate, as per orders from OMNI CENTCOM… as well as leaving the _Manhunters_ with orders to march via land."

"Classic," Rahabinod said, taking the papers and feeding them to the shredder. "It's a good thing we go out of our way to make Egypt a safe place. Without the Egyptian government's support, we would all have been out of a job." The whine of the shredder seemed too loud in the silent office. "As usual, AFRICOM is a dumping ground of requests and problems for any OMNI base not under direct threat of attack."

Yoko remained silent at Rahabinod's way of expressing his disdain with OMNI African Command, which commanded overall troop and supply movement in and around the African Community, the eastern and OMNI-controlled part of the continent. Unfortunately, they were still under the final say of CENTCOM, and it was an unspoken rumour amongst OMNI personnel that OMNI's headquarters were now staffed by Blue Cosmos sympathizers more focused on legalizing and justifying Coordinator witch-hunts, than making any effort in dealing with insurgents and dissidents. "They also said that they won't be able to send any supplies at all, what with engaging ZAFT on several fronts, the fortifying of the Suez Installation, and the construction of the Gulnahan Gate," Yoko said, her slightly furrowed brow being the only indicator of her emotion that she had allowed herself to show.

"The force there is barely worth a third of the fleet they strung in front of the _Minerva_,when OMNI ambushed them outside Orb," Rahabinod said, unknowingly voicing his subordinate's inner thoughts. "Add that to the Alliance's 'stunning display'," Rahabinod said, shaking his head, "Of 'chivalry' and 'tactical sense' at the battle of Aprilius One… it's a cosmic wonder troop morale is still so high. Maybe they're all taking drugs," Rahabinod paused to feed more paper into the shredder. "Did I mention the Atlantic Federation military command is demanding to lead most operations nowadays?"

"Scattered engagements usually end in OMNI victory," Yoko said, careful to keep her voice neutral despite her agreement with the vast majority of her commander's words. "Statistics show that ZAFT forces usually retreat in the face of superior numbers."

"That's because they have no desire to take territory," Rahabinod cut in. "Gibraltar, Carpentaria, those are all established ZAFT bases already there during the first war, returned to them during a time of peace. Why would they need to forcefully take territory when the current OMNI, by sowing distrust between native civilians and the forces it stations in any area, are already giving up those territories themselves?"

"Their recent advances towards central Eurasia, especially their latest attempt via the Gulnahan Ravine through the Iranian region, would suggest otherwise," Yoko said.

"Only because the Eurasian Federation is too busy to plug the holes in its side," Rahabinod answered. "With inter-state insurgency at its all-time high when the Junius 7 Incident occurred, and with pressure from local state governments threatening to secede into independent countries once again, the Eurasian Federation has been forced to cut off areas that are refusing its region-wide force-shuffling, so as to preserve its remaining military resources. I heard that Turkey is soon to go, and if ZAFT takes the Gulnahan Gate, then Georgia and Armenia are likely to get the same treatment, considering that their local government's past history with the Eurasian Federation has been a stormy one as of recent years."

"At least the attached tank battalion and battle copter wing were from the African Union and Republic of East Asia respectively," Yoko said, reminding Rahabinod of the units that were under their command. "OMNI Central can't take them out from under us." She paused for a while. "I need to speak with Major Nain before she leaves. Excuse me."

"Go ahead," the older officer said. As soon as Yoko had left the room, Rahabinod sighed heavily, sinking into his chair; his age, his stresses, for an instant, weighing his shoulders down to that of a shrunken old man's. "I hope so, Major," he said. "I most certainly do."

**CE 73, November 4****th****, North-East of El-Tor, OMNI Enforcer AFRICOM, Egypt, Sinai Base **

**Morning 08 40**

"Sir! Do you think the crew should load this as well?"

Ray turned to see who had called him. Warrant Officer Third Thomas Randall, the chief mechanic of Sinai Base, pointed to a couple of boxes, all either marked as spare R-14Ks, or universal beam rifle plasma slots. Messy red hair peeked out from under the non-commissioned officer's cap as he approached Ray.

"Sure, load them up as well. Include the spare parts for the Dagger Ls in the cargo hold too," Ray replied, and turned back to his datapad.

"About that, sir…" Thomas dropped his tone. "The commander of the transport ships wants to take some of our load. He said something about orders to send material to the Gate first."

Ray sighed and crossed his arms. "Let him take the bare minimum. The Dagger Ls might have been tuned for desert warfare, but I still need those replacement parts. And whatever you do, _**don't**_ allow him to take any of the flatbed trucks… I don't want to wear out the Dagger Ls' joints before we reach the Gate."

Thomas tipped his hat. "Yes sir," he said, before moving off.

Loud machinery sounds to his left made Ray look up. Sheryl was testing out the R-14K-enhanced Windam beam rifle, her Dagger L making small adjustments with its arms in imitation of a person holding a rifle at the ready, as she sighted an imaginary target on the horizon. Ray activated his comm unit. "How's the calibration for that thing?"

"Perfect," came the reply, Sheryl's glee barely contained within her voice. "I'm going to have to start stringing any ZAKU heads I get on a loop of steel wire and carry them around…!"

Leaving Sheryl to her own thoughts, Ray opened a link to Guy and Kaguya. "Leon, Sakamoto," he said. "Did you find anything in the armoury that you wanted?"

As Ray finished his sentence, Guy's Dagger L strode out of the hanger it was housed in, and plucked a M703K beam carbine, the standard model issued to all Dagger Ls, from a nearby holding rack, in addition to the Mk. 39 Low-Recoil Cannon it held in its left arm. A Launcher Striker Pack was equipped on its frame.

"The armoury has surpassed all my expectations," Guy said. "I don't know which to take, sir."

Ray smiled despite himself. "Take what you need," he said, keying in information into his datapad. "We're lacking a bombardment specialist. If you don't mind taking on the role…" Ray hit a button on the pad's touch screen, sending a list of equipment over to the older man.

Guy's eyes widened as he returning to the armoury and looked through the list. "We have _frag grenades and claymores?_ Where were these during the attack on Carpentaria- holy shit… are those high-yield_**FLASH BANGS**_? "

"Don't get your hopes too high," Ray said, wondering what was taking Kaguya so long. "The Lieutenant Colonel had the local industry manufacture some for counter-terror operations. These are the only place to get them, and they aren't really cheap on the Egyptian side either."

"Were they useful though?" Guy asked Ray, as his Dagger L picked up a bunch of eight fragmentation grenades, still in their holding crate.

"Bringing any one type of those special weapons in a mission requires Rahabinod's express permission," Ray joked. "The last time we used all of them in a single campaign back in early CE 73, the one remaining terror cell that survived the campaign almost moved out of the area. Too bad they didn't, though."

Guy eyed a bunch of six MS-sized claymores, labelled "SELF-FORGING/HIGH EXPLOSIVE ARMOR-PENETRATING", as he listened to Ray talk. He tried to imagine a GINN getting nailed by one of those. "Amen," he said, and put them on the ground while he continued looking through the armoury hangar.

Thomas walked up to Ray a second time. "Sir, the transport captain wants to take whatever Striker Packs we have as well."

Ray groaned. "Please don't tell me he-"

Just then, Kaguya's Dagger L strode out onto the open ground. Mounted on its back was a Sword Striker Pack. Kaguya deftly manoeuvred her Dagger L around as she swung the heavy Anti-Ship Sword in mock swings.

Ray watched Kaguya test out the Sword Pack, and turned back to Thomas. "He can take the batteries, he can take the spare rifles, he can take the spare joint parts, he can take the thruster fuel, he can take the artillery," Ray gestured violently at a row of Mk. 39 cannons, "But he is most certainly not going to take any Striker Packs we have, and definitely not our explosives. If he persists, you can tell him to…"

Thomas held up his hands. "I understand, sir," he said, before moving off. Ray breathed out slowly, and turned back to watching Kaguya's Dagger L cut an elegant path through air. "How's the Sword Striker?"

"Excellent," was Kaguya's answer. "Preferable to beam sabres for heavy cutting, at least. Is this the only one?"

"It is," Ray replied. "How the Lieutenant Colonel managed to get that and a Launcher Striker pack delivered to a backwater base like this, I'll never know."

Ray took a last look around, and noted with satisfaction that the supply trucks were ready to go, and so were the Dagger Ls. He strode into the hanger holding his own mobile suit.

Unlike his three other comrades, Ray's Dagger L was just that: a production Dagger L, and he preferred it that way. As a machine under the name of the _Manhunters_, the unit sported grey where white should be, and so did the other three Manhunter units. However, its head mounted two command antennas instead of one, modified to angle backwards and to the sides more than usual, and painted red like the Dagger L's headpiece. In his own way, he honoured the Strike's legacy that it left behind, as well as the heroes that he never got to meet during the Jachin Due campaign, but had heard plenty about.

Ray relaxed into the pilot seat as he powered up the systems, and outside, the head sensor units flashed a brilliant crimson; a personal tweak to the systems. He preferred to call his machine the Dagger L Custom; for short, the _Manhunter Command_.

Ray surveyed his teammates through the Dagger L's camera. Good, he thought; no anomalies in the camera and visual ID system.

The three other Dagger Ls of the _Manhunters_ also shared the same colour with the _Manhunter Command_, with the exception of its customizations; an aesthetic change courtesy of the base's technicians, who expertly re-colored their units in a single day. Painted on Guy's Dagger L's right shoulder armour was "04", Kaguya's was "03", and the middle segment of her Dagger L's upper torso armour carried her personal emblem; an empty Samurai's helmet with fiery eyes, complete with fanged helmet and mouthguard gripping a _wakizashi_, a Japanese sword. Sheryl's unit carried "02" on its right shoulder guard, and her emblem was a cartoonish ZAKU Warrior's head with a cross in lieu of its mono-eye… complete with realistically painted bullet hole through its forehead. All the Dagger Ls carried the _Manhunters'_ emblem on their left shoulder armour.

Given Sinai Base's geographical location, the technicians had already done their work on the Dagger Ls, with joints treated for sand resistance, and the pieces of synthetic cloth they had wrapped around the joints would make their units more resilient during the week of desert warfare they might have to deal with. All of the Dagger Ls were of the Block 20 upgrade batch; improved avionics and sensor systems, all internal upgrades, allowed their mobile suits to make use of horizon mapping and outline tracing to identify potential targets. Combined with traditional heat-seeking and waveform-detection systems, their Dagger Ls were almost there with fighter aircraft in terms of sensor range; an impressive feat, considering the widespread wavelength-disrupting effects of N-Jammers that were still buried in Earth.

Ray counted himself lucky that all of their Dagger Ls were of the latest version that there would ever be. The Block 25 upgrade was still in development when the Windam entered production; with the widespread adoption of the newer mobile suit, the Dagger Ls were being rapidly sidelined in terms of being kept in top form with upgrades.

_Then again_, Ray figured, _if there were any upgrades, neither the squad's nor my own machine would be the first on any officer's list to get them_.

"It's a pity we lack land battleships or even aerial carriers though," Kaguya said, her voice bringing Ray back into the present, as the four watched the ground crew load the last of the sorted supplies into the transport ship. "It would have made things very much easier."

"Unfortunately," Sheryl said. "It would also have made us the same as the rank and file." Laughter filled the team intercom.

The Dagger Ls manoeuvred onto the flatbed trucks, and Guy and Ray drew first lots to stay in the cockpit just in case. Thankfully, the Dagger Ls had improved temperature regulators; Strike Daggers had terrible temperature regulators, and most of the time the pilot suit, already lacking in comfort functions, had to do the work.

Ray opened a video line to Guy. "Lieutenant Leon," he started.

"Sir?"

"I read through your profile," Ray started. He had no idea how to handle this; part of him knowing Sheryl was that she was just that open to others.

Ray, unfortunately, had not much of a chance to practice knowing his comrades, what with the first war, spending the better part of a year in depression, and then returning to OMNI and shifting from post to post until he settled at Sinai Base. In fact, this was his first combat command where people weren't in threat from dying the moment they entered combat; if only for the fact that it wasn't Boaz or Jachin Due, and that the new members had their own considerably illustrious backgrounds.

"If I understand, you're married," Ray said.

"Yes, I am, sir," Guy replied. "My wife is a first-generation Coordinator. Her name's Kate Lanpert."

"You have a daughter," Ray continued. He inwardly chided himself for sounding more like a computer than a commander trying to get to know his team members better.

"I do. Her name is Sarah Leon," Guy said. Ray thought he detected a hint of pride in his voice. "She's young, but she's got a talent for working with computers; she had no trouble using basic functions on a discarded MS system I brought back once."

"I'm sorry, sir," Guy said, a few seconds later. "I probably sound like I'm rambling."

"Not at all," Ray replied. "Please continue. It's four hours until the guard rotation anyways."

Ray looked out of his cockpit as the convoy of trucks exited the base; behind them, the transport aircraft had also taken off, the load roar of its engines receding into the skies. He hoped no one had planted any IEDs on the road today or any day for the rest of the week; he really wanted to get to the Gate and get things done, before returning back to Sinai Base. It wasn't a large force; four mobile suits, respective supply parts, a small infantry detail, and a couple of linear artillery units. The reinforcement orders had left out the battle tank battalion and the attack helicopter complement of the base; the former was an OMNI AFRICOM unit, the latter, a loan from the Republic of East Asia that came with Major Asanogawa's reassignment.

While Ray understood that transporting those additional assets would take up more logistics than just a single transport, he also shook his head at the reinforcement orders. It was clear that the forces at the Gulnahan Gate were picking out OMNI units with ties to the Atlantic Federation, first and foremost, and as typical of many Atlantic Federation commanders who took post after the Bloody Valentine War, many of them were woefully ignorant of battle tactics not involving mobile suits. Ray turned his thoughts away from the lamentation of his nation's current state, and back to Guy, as the veteran started talking again.

"I used to live in New York, in the United States, Atlantic Federation, way back before the First Bloody Valentine War," Guy said. "I met Kate almost ten years ago; as the years went on, it was hell trying to keep her hidden in the heart of the Atlantic Federation. I kept telling her to move to Copernicus, but she wouldn't listen, and my daughter's inherited her stubbornness… or force of will, if you'd prefer hearing it like that."

Ray noticed the pride creeping back into Guy's voice. _No wonder the man lived through Operation 8.8_, Ray thought. _He has a pretty big reason to live._

"So, what happened?" Ray continued. "Your residence is stated as Copernicus, Luna… I assume you finally convinced them."

"I did," Guy said. "But it wasn't without some danger. Somehow, it got out that my daughter performed too well in school. They surmised that she was a Coordinator. Not that they were all wrong, but they just labelled her a Coordinator even without checking up her medical data. And when they did find out, they only got more arrogant."

"They?" Ray asked. "The school board?"

"Them and only. They expelled her on ground of repeated cheating… after repeated counts of bullying from her "friends", of course, and even that that was after my daughter came back home, distressed about why everyone seemed to hate Coordinators." Guy paused. "It's a good thing she understood that some things just weren't meant to be said out loud, and never actually told anyone she was half-Coordinator before."

"So my wife and I debated on whether to move. We managed to decide on Copernicus; ZAFT at that time would never allow me in, and as hard as I tried, my wife just wouldn't stand to leave me behind." Guy said. Ray could detect a hint of bitterness in the older man's voice. "Then five days later, two days before we were actually supposed to move… I came home after a short walk and found the entire neighbourhood out and wielding anything they could find. And they were gathered at my house."

"Incited by Blue Cosmos?" Ray asked.

"The men leading them were local police officers holding up OMNI papers for eviction of Coordinators from Atlantic Federation territory." Guy sighed. "Eviction my ass, some of those "evictions" prior to mine had been caught on national television, and they weren't pretty for the Coordinators involved. It was the first time I felt so helpless… that there was no one I could stand with." Guy then did a very odd thing; he chuckled.

"… Leon?" Ray asked.

"If you'll excuse me, sir, this is where it gets good." Guy said. "I wasn't able to do anything in time, but my wife did. With my pistol in hand, she threatened the people gathered that if they stepped onto the front porch of her house she would shoot them." Guy smiled at the memory. "The people didn't step down that easily, of course. But then Kate fired a round as close to the crowd as she dared into the ground. That shocked everyone into inaction. I took the chance, got Kate and Sarah, and drove as far as I could out of town, and booked the flights that would get us to Panama as fast as possible. We were lucky. I heard Atlantic Federation troops started active sweeps at Panama Spaceport when they annexed South America soon after… they caught quite a number of Coordinators too." Guy closed his eyes for a moment. "We were very lucky."

"Quite," Ray said, slowly digesting the past of his comrade. This conversation had proven to be quite a good one; Guy was open enough that Ray wouldn't need to worry about anything from him, and more importantly, he was a man governed by his logic... or at least, he seem to be. "Why continue with OMNI though?" Ray asked. "After all, they've failed you once and it nearly cost you everything."

"Well... I needed the job, sir. Actually, since I had a passport with both the Eurasian and Atlantic Federations, I could still work with mainline OMNI or the Eurasian forces when the Atlantic Federation revoked my citizenship; they weren't half-bad. In fact, when I was stationed at Berlin during CE 72, Coordinators were returning to the Eurasian Federation." Guy shrugged again. "After all, I don't see the difference between piloting Mobile Suits for OMNI, and being a low-wage welding worker on Luna." Guy smirked. "At least the pay as a pilot is good."

Ray had to give it to him, the man had iron balls. "Just be mindful that OMNI is blind to minute details like those. The Sinai forces and the troops at the Lohengrin Gate are technically under the jurisdiction of OMNI CENTCOM, and who knows how many of the commanders up top are in the pay of the Atlantic Federation." Ray paused. "We're not really mindful of whom we work with… but I can't speak for the Gulnahan forces."

Guy nodded. "I'll keep that in mind, sir."

"Good," Ray said as he terminated the connection. That was one unknown down. Guy was someone he could count on to watch his back.

For Kaguya though, Ray could see that she carried herself in a manner more suited to an aristocratic royal than the typical pilot's swagger. That, in addition to her sword skills and her former Captain rank… Ray put those thoughts into a corner of his mind. He didn't so much as expect trouble, than the possibility that he, not knowing about his teammates well enough, might make the error of sending them into roles they could never fulfil adequately.

"Just asking a question, sir…" Guy began. "But why is Sheryl's Dagger L wielding a weapon not rated for her unit?"

"Her Dagger L, the _Oracle Lance_, is tweaked to give out higher output at the cost of runtime. Her Dagger L has a spare battery pack located on its backpack." Ray explained. "As for why she went through the trouble of procuring a state-of-the-art weapon… let's just leave it at that her views towards using the Mk. 39 or Doppelhorn Striker is like trying to kill a moving ant with a cleaver."

Guy thought for a while. "Point noted, sir."

**CE 73, November 6****th****, OMNI Enforcer Armed Convoy, Petra; Israel**

**Afternoon 16 30**

For two days straight, the Sinai convoy travelled through vast expanses of empty space and rural settlements. The convoy didn't really need more than two weeks to get to the Lohengrin Gate, since they could change shifts for driving through the night, but Ray had told them to take their time; even if they did find an insurgent stronghold, they couldn't engage it carelessly. And so they had done as planned, talking with the locals they met in "convenient places" on recent happenings, and asking for any information on strange or out-of-place events. Kaguya had asked Ray about the meaning of his actions, and the young officer had explained that he trusted the locals here well enough.

Kaguya still couldn't bring herself to not think that some of the people they talked to might have been terrorist informants, but Ray had told her briefly that before he came here, something had happened in CE 72 that shifted public favour towards OMNI Sinai Base. Kaguya figured that that counted for something, since the nations around Egypt occasionally borrowed the strength of those stationed at Sinai, despite news of defecting nations all throughout CE 73.

As Sheryl was talking to a local, Kaguya, who had followed her outside, noticed two men casting furtive glances around. She took one last look at Sheryl before walking off after them.

Kaguya followed the two men to where some of the convoy's smaller vehicles were parked, a few jeeps for easy transport. Two OMNI soldiers stood guard, but the men had pinpointed the security loophole well. She hid in the shadows and watched as the two men slowly approached the flatbed truck, its bulk hiding them from the soldiers. Crouching down, the two men brought out rectangular devices from their packs.

Kaguya immediately recognized it as an attachable IED, constructed around a C7 explosive block. Activating her comm's automatic distress signal, she dashed forward and reached for the hidden throwing knife she kept handy on a belt clip, and let the sharpened blade fly. One of the men yelped as the knife found its mark on his hand, and she dodged behind a flatbed truck as the other man pulled out a pistol.

The pistol never saw use, however. The gun-wielding man toppled from a whistling hole in his temple as the two OMNI soldiers attacked, pinning the remaining man to the ground. Sheryl strode out of the alley that Kaguya went through, her pistol in both hands. In scant seconds, the entirety of the OMNI group now surrounded the man.

Sheryl spoke into her comm unit, her voice low. "Sheryl here. The trap worked." Gesturing towards the man with her gun, she motioned for the soldiers to haul the bomber to his feet. "I'm sure you know who we are, so we should get straight to the point. Where's your cell?"

The man growled. But he did not say anything else.

Sheryl sighed. "Bind him," she said. "We'll wait for Ray and Nain to deal with this."

**CE 73, November 6****th****, OMNI Enforcer Armed Convoy, Petra; Jordan**

**Night 18 11**

Major Nain bint Aamir, overall commander of the convoy, and a former personnel of the Atlantic Federation's Bureau of Intelligence, was not happy to have to deal with this. But having trained in interrogation tactics, she was the only person for the job.

Unlike the other people on this convoy, Nain was formerly part of OMNI's Intel division's field operatives. She had quit her job after Jachin Due, only to have OMNI call her back within a month, and with higher pay, to handle post-war covert operation situations, making sure that no limits were overstepped, and yet probing enough to keep them ahead of ZAFT intelligence. She had relatives to support, so she had agreed… but she soon found herself neck-deep in distasteful tasks, like sabotaging Coordinator-related information feeds, and other related unsavoury jobs.

She had protested, to no avail. She supposed that it was lucky she was assigned to Sinai Base a year ago, instead of being "assaulted" by some "punk" out on the streets somewhere.

Nain desperately wanted to rub the bridge of her nose, but face-to-face with a terrorist harder to crack than bedrock, she couldn't afford to show any emotions. Torture devices or medications for the man were out of the question; after all, she had accepted her posting here precisely because she wanted to at least reserve some moral high-ground for herself.

"Are you hungry?" Nain asked the bound man. She would try anything; after all, they couldn't take the man with them on the road. The sooner they offloaded him to local authorities, the better.

"THE GODS WILL SMITE YOU!" The man screamed. "WE ARE BLESSED BY THOSE FROM ABOVE; THEY WILL DRIVE THE TRAITORS AND SINNERS INTO THE GROUND-" The man blinked upon hearing Nain's statement. "What?"

Nain meant it as a random chance that she learnt from an old friend, but seeing as it got the man's attention, she let it rip. "I've had dinner. You haven't. You tell us where you come from – just which organization you belong to- and I'll let you eat."

"You whore," the man snarled… just as his stomach gave a loud rumble, and he fidgeted in his restrains. Nain noticed one of the soldiers standing guard in the room clenched his free hand very hard, trying to prevent a smile from breaking out on his face. He didn't actually understand what was being said, as the prisoner and Nain had been conversing in extremely fast and fluent Arabic, but he did get the gist that the prisoner just lost plenty of verbal ground.

"This is your last chance to get a meal, you know." Nain continued. "The prisons here aren't going to serve anything else other than gruel and the occasional salted… item."

"You can't break my spirit, sinner," the man said, as another loud growl echoed around the vacant space.

Nain sighed. It looked like making the man willingly divulge information in a night was too high a goal. "Transfer him to the authorities," she told the soldiers. She exited the room, letting the local authorities waiting outside step into the truck to take the man away.

Outside, Ray was waiting. He was curious beyond measure, when what he presumed was the man's voice belting out a steady stream of extremely loud and coarse-sounding Arabic words had suddenly stopped. Moments later local police officers entered the truck and dragged the man out, one of them tapping his baton threateningly on the man's chin as he squirmed. "How was it, ma'am?"

Nain shook her head as the local law enforcers left the area. "Nothing gained," she said. "I hope the locals treat him well. From what I remember they don't look kindly to violent disruptions, after what happened the last time." Nain turned to Ray. "How about other forms of analysis?"

"The IED's… well, an IED," Ray said blandly, fishing for a way to express the results of the analysis without making it sound like a failure. "But we managed to find a map amongst his items, and we've managed to trace their lodgings in this city and search their belongings." Ray gave Nain a grim look. "They seem to be from the Liberation Front of All Middle-East, or at least a local branch. I've just sent a transmission to the Lieutenant Colonel; we should get a reply soon on the most current information about those guys."

Nain grimaced. "Our old foes," She shook her head. _I hope they've forgotten about the time we shattered their main base with every MS-sized classification of explosive devices Rahabinod had..._

**CE 73, November 7****th****, OMNI Enforcer Armed Convoy, 7 kilometres north-west of Petra; Jordan**

**Night 01 00**

Max Altriar, Corporal, crept closer to the edge of his cover, using the chance to look over the rocky terrain, making sure that he was stepping on solid ground and not loose rocks. Beside him, Jake Ourenon and Burton Kalley, the medic and signalman of his squad, respectively, cast furtive glances at the shadows. The moon was full, but patches of cloud cover occasionally covered it. The howling wind, however, kept the moon from being hidden for long, and every few minutes or so, Max would find the bright face of Luna gazing back down at him again.

After that little incident back in Petra, the convoy had set off almost immediately after nightfall, the soldiers having to contend with prepacked rations instead of the field cooking that they were beginning to take for granted.

Max knew that the drivers worked in shifts, but he thought it odd that they would be travelling by night; they usually never did, and they were making good headway even with all the constant stops and distance to the Gulnahan Ravine. But when his squad leader roused him at 2am, and had thrust a rifle, a mug of coffee, and a pair of electronic binoculars at him, he realized what had transpired while he was asleep. The OMNI infantryman and his unlucky chosen partners had crawled, rolled, climbed, slid, and ran for at least two kilometres before reaching the recon point marked on his map. Unfortunately, Max couldn't really grumble; they were just one of many such recon squads on this operation, and he really should have guessed things the moment their contingent commander, Mendez LaFouze, had heartily announced to all of the infantry that tonight's dinner would be cold rations.

"Sodding hell," Jake said, shifting uncomfortably under his full combat gear and medic backpack. "Why a night run, of all things?"

"Beats me," Max replied. "Now stow it and hunker down. They usually take a base like that with an airdrop assault, to keep things as stealthy as possible; if they didn't get news of our trucks rumbling all the way out here, they'll be stupider than I figured them for."

"We started from almost four kilometres back," Jake grumbled. Max knew that of his squad, Jake hated night operations the most, having been an on-base medic for most of his military life until recently. Team signalman Burton was the same, but, thankfully for Max, kept his mouth shut, despite the cumbersome signal set that served as his backpack; Max was dressed in little more than body armour, with his combat vest filled with essentials, while Jake lugged a light-weight medic's pack around; just enough to deal with wounds that might be sustained in a firefight in a single night of operations.

"You'll be surprised at how far people can hear things when out in the wild, far from civilization," Max replied, thinking back wistfully to his previous posting on the western borders of Germany. He enjoyed walking on those forests alongside his family on his off days. "Now stow it, and that's the last time I'll be saying that."

Two kilometres away, Sheryl continued to scan the terrain with her _Oracle Lance's _improved sensors, utilizing every scrap of visual data sent from the networked binoculars of the advance scouts; arranged in intervals of half a kilometer from each other, they had formed a recon line, and had managed to narrow down the area as stated in the insurgent map the OMNI forces had found earlier that day. She managed to find a suspicious outcropping of rock; a more thorough scan revealed electronically-recognized radio waves leaking from its position, and she wasted no time in relaying the data to Ray.

"Perfect," Ray said. He mentally went through the plan again; blast a hole, neutralize effective resistance, and pave way for the local authorities coming over soon.

"Hunter Leader to all units. On my mark," Ray said. The _Manhunter Command_ held up its right hand, showing three fingers. With the night vision enhancements on the mobile suits, his hand actions could be clearly seen.

Ray counted one down. Kaguya did not even bother sparing a moment to glance at her squad leader's machine, instead keeping the reticule of her Sword Dagger L's beam carbine trained on the area Sheryl had pinpointed.

Ray counted another down. Guy briefly pinched the bridge of his nose to keep his attention from faltering. No matter how many combat situations he had been in the past, every situation was new and different. A miss at this time was unacceptable.

Ray counted one more down. Sheryl steadied her breathing, her right hand gripping the control stick lightly. The enhanced beam rifle in the _Oracle Lance's_ hands made minute position adjustments as she made last-minute adjustments before time ran out.

"Mark," Rey said. The _Manhunter Command_ had its carbine trained on that spot as well.

Sheryl had an eye for things. Guy's Launcher Dagger L fired, and the beam leapt from its Agni Hyper Impulse Cannon's barrel, connecting squarely with the rocky surface of the target point. The material in the cannon fire's immediate area vaporised, leaving a hole roughly fifteen meters in diameter, in the rock outcropping, rimmed with angry red slag, steam, and heavy smoke… and revealing a well-lit concrete tunnel behind it, complete with the rails of a heavy lift built into its surface.

Somewhere in the back of Ray's mind, he silently cursed the bastard back in the era of the Reconstruction War, before the advent of the Cosmic Era calendar, who had concepted the "underground base" stratagem and pushed for its total acceptance. It had been the perfect military method of surviving all-out nuclear exchange. Now, however, the sturdy but outdated facilities across the world had also made local insurgents into subterranean terrorists that were all but impossible to be rooted out properly.

As if the insurgents had expected someone to find them easily, a shot lanced out from the uncovered tunnel to meet the Manhunters. Guy and Sheryl barely managed to return to cover as a powerful beam screamed over the heads of the four Dagger Ls, dissipating high into the night.

"Bloody hell!" Guy exclaimed. "I thought I was supposed to be toting the heavy firepower here!"

Kaguya returned fire down the length of the tunnel while keeping her Dagger L behind cover. It hit nothing, but it did prompt the cannon to fire again. "Hunter Four to Hunter Leader," she opened a comm line to Ray. "This is suspicious, sir. Space-use weaponry is extremely difficult to obtain, considering who these insurgents are… and given that level and type of energy reading, I believe we're facing a main gun salvaged from the turret of a _Nelson_-class battleship."

Ray had to agree that it was a strange occurrence to say the least. "Hunter Leader to all scout teams," Ray spoke through a secured line. "Report your status."

The sound of gunfire immediately filtered through the open line.

**_Afterword:_**

_Many of you may have noticed that the locations are far off the paths of the main characters in Gundam SEED Destiny. This is intentional; for the most part, Greyscale World will attempt to bring in an explanation of the world at large, and the people living in it. And if something appears off, no worries; it's just me and my elementary-tier attempt at MUH PLOT HOOKS.I will do my best not to leave them hanging for too long, however…_


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**CE 73, November 7****th****, OMNI Enforcer Armed Convoy, 7 kilometres north-west of Petra; Jordan**

**Night 01 20**

Max had decided to retreat to a safe distance to watch the inevitable fireworks when he saw the Dagger Ls blow a hole into the mountainside, only for the mountainside itself to return fire. Unfortunately, the insurgents had also taken the chance to pour out of whatever tunnels they had dug for themselves, and Max now found himself under fire from twenty different directions, after one of the insurgents, equipped with night vision, had spotted them. Now, Jake was trying to patch Burton's shoulder wound, and the three infantrymen hid behind a rock barely large enough to conceal all of them.

Just then, his comm unit crackled to life. "Hunter Leader to Scout Team Bravo," Ray's voice filtered through. "Report your status."

Max grabbed his unit. "We're engaged in infantry action, sir. We requested reinforcements, but they still haven't arrived."

"Set your comm units to fire signal bursts," Ray instructed. "I'll relay your signals to the reinforcements. I'll be sending a Dagger L over as well." To Sheryl, he gave new orders. "Hunter Two, I need you to assist Scout Team Bravo; we'll be approaching the tunnel from their vector. Make sure not to get hit."

Through the video feed in Ray's HUD, Sheryl gave a thumbs-up. "You want it; you've got it, sir." The _Oracle Lance_ burst from its cover, its strides leaving footprints in the ground.

Max did as he was told. Soon enough, the firing refocused at something else; a Dagger L, specifically, the _Oracle Lance_. The unit poked its head out from cover; machinegun fire bounced off its head armour and bulletproof visor, but otherwise did nothing. Sheryl reciprocated by sending a burst of CIWS fire into the darkness, towards where the gunfire originated from. Max could hear the screams of people hit by the _Oracle Lance's_ M2M5 "Todesschrecken" 12.5mm gun.

Max's comm unit crackled again. "Keep your heads down," Sheryl said. "I'm not done cleaning the front porch yet."

The _Oracle Lance_ continued firing into the darkness whenever it spotted returning fire. Max blinked furiously as he tried to clear his vision of the flashes. "How's Burton?"

In the darkness, Max saw Jake's silhouette wipe his hands on his pants. "He'll live," the corpsman said. Burton didn't speak, but grunted and gave a thumbs-up sign at Max. It wasn't long before Max spotted the rest of his squad moving into his position behind him.

"Good job, Bravo Team," Sheryl said. "Looks like they've decided to retreat into the house. Just hang back and let us do the heavy lifting now." Max could see two more Dagger Ls moving into position behind the first.

Max winced as a bright green beam lanced out from the tunnel again. There was a pause, and Agni fire answered the beam's challenge, a multicoloured shot fired down the tunnel. Another green lance of energy split the night sky as Scout Team Bravo picked themselves up and rejoined their squad.

"Let's get in while they're distracted," Ray said. The three Dagger L units slowly moved down the slope and positioned themselves along the edge of the tunnel.

Ray risked a look into the comparatively well-lit service tunnel, a simple, gently- sloping construction set up to allow a service lift to move from top to bottom, and vice versa. True to his thoughts, and to Kaguya's analysis, it was a beam cannon, and a repaired, single-barrelled older-model turret at that, hooked up to several power generators.

To his dismay, several CIWS turrets and missile launchers on wall mounts dotted the walls leading down. The terrorists had even erected crude, movable blast shields along the floor and ceiling of the tunnel, using remote-controlled wheeled industrial exoskeletons, presumably to block indirect attacks; if Ray had decided on tossing grenades down the chute from farther away, he would have burned through quite a number of them before landing a lucky hit. He ducked back as one of the CIWS units sent a stream of rounds at his Dagger L's exposed head.

But this time, Ray had more people to command. The Agni's beam lanced out again, this time hitting an interior section of the wall. The three Dagger Ls held their shields up as the return fire cut the air perilously close to their units. Ray saw the frame temperature of his _Manhunter Command_ skyrocket, before slowly cooling down.

"Hunter Leader to Hunter Two," he said, and flashed his Dagger's eye units thrice. "Down the hatch one at a time, if you'll please."

Sheryl bared her teeth in a wide smile. "With pleasure," the younger officer said, as her Dagger L ripped grenades from makeshift holders on its side skirt armour, and tossed first one, then two, and then three grenades down the tunnel with surprising accuracy, each toss done with less strength than before. The EMP grenades tumbled through the air, Sheryl's angles sending the blast panels scrambling futilely to catch the munitions, and with a bright flash they exploded in order, three expanding fields of blue EMP waves encompassing the length of the tunnel. Most of the wall-mounted defensive equipment was enveloped in the blast; sparks could be seen on the CIWS units, and Ray assumed that the missiles in the box launchers within the EMP zone were now non-functional as well. A few of the further turrets, however, remained intact.

"Now! Storm the front!" Ray shouted over the comm. He shifted his _Manhunter Command's _movement to the highest gear possible and stormed down the tunnel, beam carbine spitting out shots at key targets with as much accuracy as he could muster, while the mobile suit's shield shook from the few missiles impacting it. Behind him, Kaguya was doing the same thing, and he saw that the beam cannon, now smoking, sported a neat cluster of holes in its cannon housing, courtesy of Sheryl's own opening salvo. Sheryl herself continued to fire as fast as she could, sending the people at the bottom of the tunnel scrambling for cover.

Reaching the bottom of the tunnel, Ray, Kaguya and Sheryl fanned out. Ray looked around warily; he was painfully aware of the harsh lighting in the cavernous and cluttered underground hangar casting dark shadows everywhere. Cargo boxes half the height of a Dagger L were stacked on each other, creating a hiding spot big enough for an MS. It was as though the place was _set up _that way.

Kaguya felt the low rumble before her ears heard the whine of thrusters. "Contact!"

A GINN burst out from behind a cargo crate, handheld rifle blazing. In its other arm it held a sword. Kaguya's Dagger L held up its shield, taking both the bullets and the sword blow that followed. Without a word, Kaguya dropped her Dagger's rifle, and in a single motion drew her beam sabre and sliced through the GINN's waist section, just a few centimetres lower from cutting through the cockpit. The moneyed unit toppled over in two halves, flames streaming out of its body.

Ray looked around. Surely they had more GINN units. He looked as Kaguya's Dagger L knelt near the GINN. "Hunter Four to Hunter Leader," Kaguya said. "This GINN… there was no pilot inside. It's automated."

Before Ray could ponder what that meant, a beam shot flew past Sheryl's Dagger, slagging the wall section that it hit. Sheryl turned around and fired off a shot, but her assailant unit was much faster than the GINN that Kaguya had dealt with. All they could see was its silhouette as it dashed off .

"A ZAKU?" Sheryl said, incredulity evident in her tone. "This is making less and less sense!"

Though Ray had only a second to see with his own eyes, it was indeed a Blaze ZAKU Warrior, one of ZAFT's newest units. In a straight comparison, it would take two Dagger Ls to match a ZAKU Warrior. The question burning in Ray's mind, however, was how local insurgents were apparently fielding the latest in ZAFT weaponry, and how were they capable of piloting it. _Did they get lucky and capture one, then proceed to upload a Natural-use OS into it without having the programming mess up? Or are there Coordinators amongst them?_

Ray fired one last shot as the ZAKU sped into a service tunnel, leg thrusters blazing. Adding to his prior thoughts, the ZAKU was nearly jet-black where it should be green, with deep-red outlines on the rims of its shoulder and head armour. If his experiences in the Bloody Valentine War were anything to go by, custom colours usually mean that their pilots were special in some way.

The trio proceeded cautiously through the hangar bay. "Infantry teams Alpha, Bravo and Charlie," Ray signaled. "Secure the tunnel and move down. Guy, you're on guard. Blow up any MS that tries to interfere with the troopers. To all forces, the combat area is extremely cluttered. Proceed cautiously and watch out for traps."

"Aye sir," Guy said, his Dagger L hefting its beam carbine. Behind them, forty-five men quickly moved into the hangar bay, and entered the various personnel-sized entrances scattered around.

"This place is as cluttered as hell," Sheryl muttered, pushing aside empty cargo boxes half her mobile suit's height, as the team proceeded down a large service tunnel they found linked to the equally-cluttered hangar. "You would think that they knew how to clean up... or they left them behind to slow us down. Still, this place is pretty impressive… did the insurgents dig all this rock out themselves?"

"It's probably an old underground base from the Unification Wars," Ray replied. "This place doesn't have any OMNI markings, and some of those fixtures look too old to have been fixed here during the Bloody Valentine War."

The trio proceeded down the service tunnel a while more, when Kaguya felt an unease. "This is Hunter Four," she said. "Sir, something here isn't right."

Sheryl had to join in as well. "Hunter Two here. It's suspicious. The last time we fought them, they were using GINNs and Strike Daggers that looked as though they could fall apart at any time. And that was before we used the Lieutenant Colonel's explosives." Sheryl pushed another stack of cargo boxes out of the way. "They've recovered too well and too fast."

Ray motioned for all of them to stop. "I share your sentiments," he said. "But all the more we need to clear them out." He looked around for any suspicious signs. "That ZAKU Warrior worries me especially-"

Ray noticed a blinking red light behind Kaguya's unit, and his blood ran cold. "Fall back!" Ray opened his comm channel. "Hunter Three, cover the troopers! Retreat from the hangar!"

A thunderous roar rang out as explosions rocked the service tunnel. Debris rained down on the three Dagger L units.

Ray saw rocks collapse over the service tunnel entrance. "Shields up!" he shouted into his comm. We're going to sit this one out!" He saw Sheryl and Kaguya's units hold up their shields above their heads. _At least they still trust me even after having been led into a trap _was his last thought as a particularly heavy impact caused Ray head to slam against the back of his helmet. The hit was heavy enough that Ray's vision exploded into brightness for a brief moment, before the blackness swallowed him up.

**CE 73, November 7****th****, OMNI Enforcer Armed Convoy, 7 kilometers north-west of Petra; Jordan**

**Night 02 11**

Ray awoke to the flashing console lights in his darkened cockpit. When the initial mental disorientation passed, the first thing he did was to wiggle his toes. Once he felt them move within his boots, he moved his fingers on the side of the cockpit until he found an indent. He pulled on it, revealing a fold-out keyboard for command inputs.

Ray keyed in an order for an automatic ping for his teammates' status even as he tested out the controls of his Dagger L. The computer returned green signals for Sheryl and Kaguya's machines, indicating that their units still functioned, at least. Guy's status remained unconfirmed.

Ray was testing the vision settings and was wondering if the main head cameras were busted, until the debris cleared off his mobile suit's head. Ray was wondering what had caused the debris to move, when he found himself face-to-face with a mono-eye.

Even as force of habit had Ray jamming his trigger finger down to fire the _Manhunter Command's_ head CIWS, another part of his brain screamed at him to fire thrusters on full burn. He did, and the mobile suit shot out of the debris, causing the mono-eye to waver in an unbalanced manner.

Ray struggled with the controls as he landed, fighting to keep the _Manhunter Command's_ left foot from sinking into the debris. A beam rifle shot lanced past him, and he gave up trying to keep balance in favour of shielding himself. Thankfully, the mobile suit's shield was still on its arm, although he had lost the rifle. The next shot connected squarely with the shield, throwing the customized Dagger L onto its back.

The mono-eyed unit moved forward, seemingly unconcerned by the unfair position his _Manhunter Command_ was in. On-screen, the tactical display automatically activated the mobile suit's low-light sensors, painting a humanoid patch of crimson on Ray's HUD. Ray aimed and fired his Dagger L's CIWS again, but a shoulder shield slid into position from the left of the enemy unit, blocking the rounds from damaging the delicate head camera. From the flashes of the CIWS, Ray noted that it was a ZAKU Warrior, the same one back then. The ZAKU raised its rifle.

Just then, an arm shot out from under the debris, and grabbed onto the ZAKU's left leg pipe. The unit toppled from the sudden pull, and another Dagger L burst from the pile of rock behind the ZAKU, bringing a beam sabre at minimal power down on the ZAKU's torso. The short beam penetrated into the cockpit of the mobile suit, killing the pilot, but thankfully leaving the fuel tanks untouched.

Ray heaved a sigh of relief as the second Dagger L reached into the debris and pulled on the arm, revealing a dusty but otherwise undamaged Sword Dagger L. "Hunter Leader to all units," Ray said. "Status problems?"

"Hunter Two reporting. None here," Sheryl replied. "Good going with the ZAKU's leg, Kaguya."

"I just did what I could," Kaguya replied. She tested out her Dagger L's controls. "Hunter Three reporting. Seems like my left arm is out of action."

"Noted," Ray said, just as a beam of light pierced the gloom. Guy's Dagger pushed down the debris that had blocked the tunnel off. "This is Hunter Three. Is anyone in there?"

"All green, Hunter Three," Ray replied. "Any injuries on your side?"

Guy, or rather his Dagger L, shook its head. "Surprisingly, only the tunnel was rigged. The infantry squads have secured the hangar; they have teams sweeping the interior sections." Guy paused to listen to a transmission. "It seems like they've found the control room. They're disabling the bombs right now."

Ray opened a private like to Sheryl. "How long was I out?"

"5 minutes."

"And you were all awake by then?"

"It seems like there weren't enough explosives, seeing as how there's still a semblance of a tunnel here," Sheryl said. "Sakamoto was the one who woke me; her unit was trapped just a few meters from mine. I'd never thought an MS tapping on another's leg armour could be so _loud_."

Ray kept silent as he weighed his options. "Hunter Two, I'm switching you with Hunter Three," he said. "We're going to press down this tunnel further. It seems that it still hasn't collapsed yet; I want to see if there's anything at its end."

"Roger that," Guy and Kaguya replied. Guy's Dagger L widened the hole leading to the service tunnel and entered, and Kaguya's Dagger L bumped fists with Guy's before both units went to their respective tasks.

Ray motioned for them to follow his unit. "It seems that something here is capable of tracking our signals." Ray thought back to Sheryl's description of how Sakamoto had woken her, as well as his signal ping and how the ZAKU had found him easily. "From now on, physical signals only." He reached into the debris a few meters where his former position was, and pulled out a beam carbine.

Ray shook the gun. Dust scattered from its frame, but the weapons link to his mobile suit's systems showed that it was undamaged otherwise. Beside him, Sheryl's Dagger L was hefting its custom rifle, and on Guy's Dagger L, the 120mm Anti-Ship Vulcan spun for a brief moment. The _Manhunter Command_ held up its carbine and tapped the gun once.

Sheryl's and Guy's Dagger Ls gave thumbs-up signs, and the three units proceeded down the dark tunnel.

**CE 73, November 7****th****, OMNI Enforcer Armed Convoy, 54 kilometers east of Petra; Israel **

**Night 02 25**

The last of the crumbling sounds faded into the darkness as Guy's Dagger L stepped into a debris-free patch of the tunnel. _Seems like the rigged section ends here_, Guy thought.

The _Manhunter Command_ was in the lead position; Guy saw it hold up its left hand and point a finger forward, then two, then three. Then it opened and closed its hand unit twice, ending with a clenched fist that it held in the air for three seconds. _Spread out and cover all forward vectors. Be careful._

More crates littered the area, but this time, the squad moved around them instead of pushing them somewhere else; nevertheless, the footsteps of the Dagger L units echoed, almost painfully so, down the tunnel. Guy's unit walked past a section of the wall with a side path. It was barely large enough to fit an MS through.

Guy pulled his controls back as fast as he could, and his Dagger L staggered back; a blade split the air where his Dagger's torso had been seconds ago. A GINN OCHER stepped out; its right hand held a sword, while its left hand had a rifle… and it was squarely aimed at Guy.

The rifle's only shot went wide as Guy's Launcher Dagger opened up with its shoulder vulcan, the large-calibre rounds tearing the GINN's gun arm off at the elbow. The GINN tried to swing its sword around, but it only sealed its fate; the 120mm bullets etched a path across the GINN's torso and its right shoulder, blasting its sword arm off at the shoulder joint. Guy didn't miss a beat; he followed up with a shield smash into the GINN's torso, where its cockpit was. The _crunch_ sound echoed down the tunnel, chasing after the rapidly-fading noises of gunfire.

Ray and Sheryl backtracked to Guy's position and covered him with their shields as Guy dragged the GINN to a solid wall section, and pulled off its mangled cockpit hatch.

There was no pilot inside. Ray saw Guy's Dagger L hold up an open palm and shake it thrice.

The entire thing was getting more and more mysterious. Apart from the two GINNs and the ZAKU, it didn't fit in with the data Rahabinod had sent earlier that night; that the insurgents had at least ten mobile suits of varying type. As well, there was way too little effort put into this. The _Manhunters_ were right in their base; the last time, they had Strike Daggers throwing themselves at the OMNI troops in the hopes that they could tangle the Dagger Ls down long for their comrades to shoot at, and men climbing all over their mobile suits trying to sabotage anything they could get to. Ray remembered the unlucky soul that had dropped from above in an attempt to sabotage the _Manhunter Command's_ sensors, only to hit the front of its CIWS while it was still firing.

The trio moved forward, and hit a wall. Ray's Dagger ran its hand over the wall and over two seams. He turned back to Guy and Sheryl and pointed at his beam sabre. Both Daggers nodded back and crouched in firing positions.

Ray's Dagger took out its beam sabre; a pink blade of energy flashed to life. Ray slowly jammed the sabre into the wall, and cut a rectangular section of the wall out, making a hole as the _Manhunter Command_ kicked the lone section down.

The moment the hole appeared, gunfire poured in. Ray barely managed to avoid getting splashed by a literal rain of 76mm rounds and beam rifle shots as he ducked behind his shield, bullets and beams bouncing off. Behind the door, eight units, GINNs, Strike Daggers, and even a ZuOOT fired at the hole in the sealed bulkhead; thankfully, the ZuOOT was missing its shoulder cannons.

Sheryl saw the _Manhunter _Command put its hand behind its back and display two fingers. It then opened and closed them four times.

Sheryl gave a small smile as she ripped two fragmentation grenades free from their clips, and tossed them in. Ray saw the canisters roll to where two Strike Daggers were standing behind a stack of crates, their beam rifles spitting out shots. One of the Strike Daggers looked down.

Metal exploded upwards in a semicircular area as the grenades flung self-forging fragments all over the two units. One Strike Dagger, unable to support itself on damaged leg joints, collapsed backwards; the other stood silent, shrapnel embedded in its torso. Some of the other units had stopped firing; presumably, their pilots were shocked and looking at the blast.

From the hole that Ray had cut out, three Dagger L units returned fire. The _Manhunter Command_ blasted away with its beam carbine, while Guy's Launcher Dagger L fired its own carbine from its left hand; its right vulcan gun roared, spitting out 120mm rounds that pockmarked the cargo boxes used for cover. Sheryl's _Oracle Lance_ immediately targeted the ZuOOT, her rifle creating a neat pattern of three holes in the ZAFT MS's torso; the ZuOOT fell silent, its mono-eye going dark.

The firefight was short, but brutal, as the Manhunters methodically placed each and every shot into a critical area. One of the Strike Daggers attempted to block a beam round, but the high-energy shot from Sheryl's custom rifle pierced through its shield and burned through the mobile suit's cockpit. A third GINN went down, frame smoking from multiple bullet holes and a beam shot to the left leg joint. Ray's Dagger L hit a Strike Dagger in the right shoulder, the impact sending the unit reeling into the open, where Guy claimed another victim with his unit's shoulder vulcan.

As Ray's last shot felled the last remaining Strike Dagger, the entire area went silent. Ray initiated a full scan of the area; while thermal was useless, the walls were free of out-of-place electronic signatures, and did not look rigged this time. Ray maneuvered his Dagger L through the 14-meter hole, and stepped into the second hanger. Unlike the first one, this one was clean. Another tunnel linked the hangar to the land above; surprisingly, Ray didn't see any trucks laden with terrorists trying to escape.

Ray paused and picked up a round object from where a GINN had fallen, and spotted something unusual. It was holding a rifle that it wasn't supposed to; that of a ZAKU Warrior's beam rifle. The ammunition clip for the beam weapon had fallen from the rifle when it fell.

Sheryl opened her comm unit. "An MMI-M633 beam rifle," she said, nodding towards the ZAKU-use rifle. "This is a rather nasty surprise… maybe ZAFT or their sympathizers were supplying these people?"

Guy's Dagger knelt beside the Strike Dagger that was felled with the 120mm vulcan. "Hunter Three here. These have pilots," the older man said. "It seems like the information from the Lieutenant Colonel was correct after all."

Ray was about to answer when a transmission from Kaguya interrupted him. "Hunter Four reporting. The infantry squads are done, sir." Kaguya paused. "They've managed to capture 12 prisoners and secure or clear 90% of the base."

Ray looked up at the secondary hangar's control room as the troopers burst into an empty room, guns raised. Ray gave a salute of thanks with his Dagger L, and one of the men reciprocated the action.

"So that leaves one question," Ray said. "Where did they get a ZAKU?"

Sheryl had opened a video channel and was about to say something when beam rounds lanced into the room from the tunnel that led up to the surface of the land. One of them hit the control room that the OMNI soldiers had just vacated mere seconds ago; Ray could see a bloodied trooper get hauled away through the remains of the half-slagged door.

"Take cover!" Ray put his shield in front of him. He realized his mistake seconds later, as a blast erupted from the service tunnel they just exited; rocks and metal pieces the size of the _Manhunter Command's_ head flew out, propelled by a blast of such magnitude that Ray guessed could only be caused by additional explosives embedded in the walls… combined with the self-destruct sequence of the ZAKU that they had left behind there.

In the chaos, no one noticed a green-suited person escaping through the very exit of the tunnel to the surface. The ZAKU Phantom that had fired the shot flashed its mono-eye once, and quickly boosted off.

Under normal circumstances, Ray would have wondered why the ZAKU had retreated when it could have taken the chance to finish them off in the confusion. Right now, however, he was more concerned with taking as little damage as possible.

"Hunter Leader to all forces, status report," Ray shook his head to clear the disorientation. Despite being in a mobile suit, the shockwaves from the explosion were strong enough to topple the Dagger Ls with ease, had they not stood their ground. "Infantry, report any casualties."

"We're all still alive," the reply came back. "A couple of people got serious cuts and burns, but nothing fatal otherwise. We've cleared and secured over 95% of the area in his base, so there should be very little risk of an enemy attack."

"Understood. Gather your men and the prisoners, and pull out of this area." Ray switched his comm channels. "Hunter Four? Anything on your end?"

Static filled the line as the _Manhunter Command_ tried to establish contact. Moments later, the video feed displayed Kaguya's face. "Nothing here. The explosion did not cause any secondary or tertiary damages. " Kaguya looked to the side of her screen. "Major Nain is on the line… she's ordering all forces to pull back."

"Understood," Ray said. He took off his helmet and heaved a sigh of relief, undoing his pilot suit's neck brace. "Hunter Leader to all units. Good job today, people. Mission accomplished."

**CE 73, November 7****th****, OMNI Enforcer Armed Convoy, 54 kilometres north-east of Petra; Israel **

**Morning 06 49**

Nain rubbed her temples, trying to get rid of the throbbing pain. Paper cups, all containing dregs of instant coffee, littered the metal table in the cabin that she worked in.

Sighing, she moved over to look out of the window and the scenery zooming past, the rising sun casting shadows everywhere. The convoy had cleared camp and moved off the moment first light broke through the sky, almost a half hour ago. Trailing behind the command truck that Nain was in were the four trailers holding the Dagger L units.

She had spent the better part of the night pondering the ramifications of the intelligence that the _Manhunters_ had brought back. It wasn't unusual for insurgents to be in possession of mobile suits, even GINNs, but the fact that the _Manhunters_ had fought two ZAKUs had complicated matters. Though she was OMNI, Nain was inclined to believe that ZAFT's laws on MS sales were not as lax as those from the various nations' that comprised the Earth Alliance; for a ZAKU to be under the control of some backwater insurgents due to a mere monetary transaction on the black market was a laughable concept.

That, and the fact that the insurgents were the same one that they had just done in two months before the Break the World Incident, had Major Nain rubbing her temples in irritation. Nain had read through the data that Rahabinod had sent over; the group had spent two years cobbling together their MS forces prior to Sinai Base's offensive. The recovery of their organization in such a short time was downright impossible.

Nain set down the stack of papers, and tapped the metal table as she collected her thoughts. There was only one possibility left, but she was loath to admit it; if ZAFT had really armed the local terrorists to harass the local OMNI forces, then the Lohengrin Gate would be on their own. Sinai Base's own forces notwithstanding, the Gate could kiss the OMNI battle group sailing up the Gulf of Suez goodbye if the terrorists had significant mobile suit forces. Nain had seen video records of the Minerva's fight against the OMNI fleet outside of Orb's territorial waters; it was the unit that ZAFT had fielded, the Impulse, that gave her pause to the Lohengrin Gate's ability to hold the line. The Gate was well-fortified, but Nain was sure that the Impulse's ability to separate and change equipment on the fly would be of paramount importance in the upcoming battle.

All that could wait, however. Nain set herself down on the couch in the room and set her watch alarm to 07 20. Right now, she wouldn't wake up even if every colony from the PLANTs decided to rain upon the surface of the planet.

**CE 73, November 7****th****, OMNI Enforcer Armed Convoy, 58 kilometres north-east of Petra; Jordan **

**Morning 07 05**

Alan Reidr, the commander of the Deep Strike Corps team operating in this region, watched the convoy pass him by. Though he was well-hidden, he kept his trigger finger ready, just in case. Experience had taught him that people living in harsh conditions tended to be better overall than the majority… like how four OMNI units last night stormed the terrorist base with zero losses.

As he watched the convoy roll past his position, he resisted the urge to fire his Gunner ZAKU Phantom's M1500 "Orthros" long-range multi-phase beam cannon. He was sure that there were eyes waiting for a signal. One twitch from him and all four Dagger L units would be on his position; despite the ZAKU Phantom's superior technology, he wasn't sure that he could take on four Dagger Ls, not with all four seemingly customized and outfitted with specialized weaponry.

It was a shame about Boris Cullen, he thought. The young pilot had volunteered to accompany the terrorists that Alan had made contact with; while they were outfitted with old surplus ZAFT and OMNI hardware, once the terrorists were done with the OMNI forces, ZAFT's troops in the vicinity and at the Mahamul Base would be next for "extermination". Alan had figured that trying to kill two birds with one stone might work; deal with any incoming OMNI forces, and placate the local insurgents; if OMNI dealt with them first, then there was no great loss. Unfortunately, Boris had tried to finish off the Dagger Ls by himself before the plan was through, and he lost. Alan nearly lost another team member in trying to deny the Dagger Ls the ZAKU Warrior that Boris had left behind.

Alan pushed the thoughts of his deceased comrade behind. The young man had been an orphan of Junius Seven, but his drive for revenge and hot-blooded attitude irked Alan, who preferred careful analysis and surgical execution during combat. He returned to watching the convoy head off, and out of sight.

Alan's ZAKU Phantom was about to push itself off its prone position when Alan noticed a person in a ZAFT pilot suit motioning to him. He put the ZAKU into a kneeling position and opened his cockpit hatch. "Anything from your side, Sakerfield?"

Grace "Butcher of Carpentaria" Sakerfield, his second in command since the formation of this team three years ago, and a fellow veteran, shook her head. "Seems like this is it." She looked at the horizon. "If we're taking them out, then we need to do it now, Captain."

"Negative," Alan replied. "We're not going to win with a single Gunner and a Slash ZAKU… not from this position and time, at any rate." He returned into his cockpit. "Rendezvous with our support. We'll take them on at a more opportune moment."

Grace saluted. "Aye sir."

Alan moved his ZAKU into a slow walk as he watched his subordinate board her Slash ZAKU Warrior. _Soon_, he thought. _Three days to the assault on the Lohengrin Gate. Once Fredric returns from his other mission, we'll cut off this part of their reinforcements by then._

**_Afterword:_**

_Alan Reidr and his comrades from __Tales of the Cosmic Era __have finally made it in here. A core group of veterans all around to match our protagonists, I hope I didn't go overhand in making them appear as some sort of reverse-Kira Yamato._


End file.
